Davesbs Blog

Well, first day in and the Microsoft Licensing Sales Specialist course is excellent!

Holy crap, did I just say that! I didn’t fall asleep once and even listened to the Enterprise stuff. Now feel ready for the exam though not in a ’salesy’ way. This was pure scenario based learning with real world insights and NOT death by powerpoint!

By far the best Microsoft training event I have been to! (and Angus from Amber Computing agreed!)

Actually really looking forward to tomorrow where we can drill down more into SBS cals etc.

Today I signed up for the 44IN006 - Intensive - Microsoft Licensing Sales Specialist Training event, held in the new Microsoft Headquarters in Edinburgh.

It didn’t seem to be on any of the normal Partner Training sites. However, it was announced on the Tartan Tech Blog which many Scottish partners may have missed or don’t subscribe to!

Check here for great news/updates on Microsoft Scottish Region stuff: http://blogs.technet.com/tartantech/default.aspx

Also, it was pointed out on the new Microsoft Partner Network by Alan Hamilton: http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/members/Alan-Hamilton/default.aspx

I am sure other similar courses are being held around the country. Check with local offices or ask on the Partner Network to keep up with training.

Anyway, this is a two day 9-5 course….all about licensing!!!! help!

I did a one day course about a year or so ago and found it sometimes hard going. Much of the stuff was about enterprise agreements etc but this course looks much more SMB-ish and splits the days into Licensing Programs and Product Licensing.

Last course I did gave the MLSS accreditation at the end but again this new course seems more thought out and less salesy. I hope! Also the exam will need to be taken afterwards to gain the MLSS so it’s not so much of a turn up and get another title.

I don’t know about you but I think that Microsoft licensing is like being able to read music. Some people get it straight away but can’t really explain it to lesser mortals and us lesser mortals will never get it and give up

I will be asking for specific solutions to SBS/SMB licensing scenarios so if anyone wants me to raise anything at the training, just ping me.

Cheers

Hi all,

Many apologies to all who have read and will read this blog. (I hope)

I have committed a cardinal sin. One I promised I wouldn’t, namely stopping blogging for a while.

This of course turned into months!

Some good reasons for this though:

1) Re-branding: change of company name and focus. Working on new website as we speak (well, write)!

2) Being diagnosed as having epilepsy at the age of 38 after an out of the blue seizure in October hasn’t helped things. Three more in one day two weeks ago completely knackered me and I am now on life-long medication! I have to thank my clients and friends in the Edinburgh SBS User Group and wider UKSBS community for understanding and support.

3) Some IT issues have so thoroughly pissed me off that I couldn’t bring myself to vent about them until now. One being Windows 7: UAC being diluted, all the different versions and not having Bit-Locker in the ‘Business’ version!

What the F**K is that all about!

Microsoft knew what people thought about the different versions of Vista causing confusion. They knew that Bit-Locker was wanted (and needed) in the business/Pro version of Vista and therefore Windows 7.

Fair enough (maybe), Bit-locker was new in Vista so they wanted to recoup development costs but now it has been out for ages so why not add it to the ‘Business’ version of Windows 7?

Check this out:

http://hiltont.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-microsoft-seems-not-to-understand.html

They have to stave off the attitude of dumb terminals and in the Cloud servers that we are all told are coming in order to sell fully featured desktop operating systems. What do they do, they leave out one of the most important features and then ask businesses to pay even more to add it in.

Johnny business owners says: ‘Na, I don’t think I’ll bother buying SA to get this Bit-Locker, after all I don’t need a new version of Windows cause all my stuff is stored on the internet or my office server. If I do, I will get a new OS with each new PC I fork out for so why pay again. I don’t think so Microsoft!’

I never, I repeat, never, thought that I would think about thin client desktops so soon.

I knew that I would have to consider Cloud computing but I honestly thought that Windows fully featured OS’s would still be around and ‘wanted’ by the buying punters for years to come, mostly because of the features they added that dumb terminals didn’t have.

Way to go Microsoft!

As some may know, I do work with Apple Mac stuff. Some may call it the Dark Side of the force, especially as some of their clients will be asking about the shiny new iPhone and linking it to Exchange!

I am not going to get into a Mac vs Windows discussion, each have their place and I try to specialise in having both work nicely together in a network situation. They are just tools really after all.

BUT…when setting up my girlfriends new 24″ iMac the other day, I just had to be reminded of how simple and dare I say it, enjoyable it was. Now this is not integrated into any Active Directory structure yet, it is hanging off a Netgear ADSL Firewall device for Internet access.

30 minutes was really all it took including taking out the Apple installed 2 x 1GB memory sticks and replacing with 2 x 2GB’s. The iMac has two slots and it is cheaper to buy memory yourself, keep the factory installed parts as spares and upgrade to the maximum 4GB, than to get apple to supply the machine with it!

The fun will be connecting it to my SBS 2008 Beta network, though I think I will have to bite the bullet and get a Mac Mini for testing. The new iMac is for her indoors work so I better not tinker too much

On that note, if anyone wants to get down and dirty with the Dark Side and who has never touched a Mac ever or not for many years, the Mac Mini is the ideal companion. I reckon there is a model refresh/update about to hit as all the other Mac computers have been done. Newer Intel chips and better graphics (Intel GMA X3100) are the order of the day even in the laptop range, so a new Mini must be coming soon. Watch this space as I think days or weeks rather than months and the tight lipped Cupertino will announce a new Mini. Rumours are abound about it being very small at half the size of the existing model as they will do away with any optical drive.

I have been accused of now liking the Mac by the missus as oppossed to seeing it as a necessary but attractive tool. Time will tell….I have spent most of the last few days in front of the iMac instead of any PC. Haven’t done that since I worked in the printing trade

Robbie Upcroft’s SBS Down Under blog announced that Suzanne Dansey has become Australia’s newest SBS MVP! Another SBS MVP joins the list in Australia

Well done Susanne. Keep up the good work

Congratulations to Nick Lloyd and Sirona Solutions, who recently became the latest member of the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community.

If you know me or read this blog you will know that I am great supporter of SBSC and although there are many things which could be done differently or improved upon, I think it is invaluable to the partners who stand behind it.

Nick has even said that this blog contributed to his decision to start blogging about the community http://nickssmbblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/smb-and-sbs-blogs.html

Good on ya Nick!

The server (souped up desktop PC) I have been using for three years is frankly f***ed.

I bought myself an HP ML110G5 with dual core Xeon, four 250gb non-hot swap Sata drives of the new HP Midline range and bumped the ram up to 6GB. Also comes with a next business day 3 year on-site support contract.

This will be my new ‘production’ server once I also get an ML310 or 350 for testing with Virtual machines etc. At the moment it has SBS 2008RC0 on it running just fine, well apart from the DNS issues I blogged about!

The cost of this small but perfectly formed beast? All in just over £700! I might even get another with less drives and memory as the base machine with 1GB ram and a 160GB Sata HD comes in at about £180.

For those of you who do Dell (you know who you are :-)  and not HP, take another look. Excellent build quality and for me, the killer is onboard Sata raid 1. Yes….I can hear the screams already But compared to the dell small servers which don’t have any onboard raid controller, this is a significant advantage. It is a proper and tested Adaptec controller chip. I do not need anything more. If I did, I could get the HP Smart Array E200/128 for £200 or any of the HP range of controllers. Remember this server only has 4 drive bays.

The debate about Sata vs SAS and onboard vs Raid controller card with memory and possibly battery backup will rage for a while if I have anything to do with it

Just a heads up regards SBS 2008 RC0.

I and a few others are having issues with DNS (have a look on Microsoft Connect at your dashboard if you have the public preview and check the bug reports).

Every couple of days internet access flakes out. Testing from the router is fine, Ping and DNS diagnostics run fine. In my case the router is a Netgear Prosafe DGFV338.

Restarting the DNS services on the Server or re-running the Connect to the Internet Wizard (CTIW another new anacronym!) fixes the issue for a few days.

I was about to put in a bug report but searched first and found it was already reported on 30th June. Please always search the bug reports first, it will help streamline the bug hunt! The issue is being looked at and MSFT have not found it to be in their code. We look forward to a fix.

Call me strange but this gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, being able to download previews and betas, see updates and bug reports and join relevant newsgroups all from a central MSFT Connect site!

It also feels good to be able finally to help shape the upcoming and great looking SBS 2008 product. So far it feels like light years ahead of SBS 2003. Various little things… you get the picture, sign-up for the preview and test if you haven’t already.

Also keep up with David Overton’s blog as he frequently posts about SBS 2008 and has screenshots of installs etc.

Cheers and happy bug reporting! 

Watched a Scottish BBC news item on t’telly tonight about broadband speed.

It seems that the average speeds across the country are about 2Mbps download with some place like Northern Ireland being less that that or indeed, crap!

Some bloke who works in a little village up northern Scotland has to take his boat out to cross a loch just to receive email.

Now don’t get me wrong. I know there are the infrastructure arguments about the UK roll-out of BT’s 21CN network etc etc yawn yawn and how much it will cost. That’s for another blog post.

The real point is that to me, this guy in his boat and many many others like him are the ideal candidate for the hosted/cloud Exchange or Sharepoint. He and his fellow company people may turn over a healthy amount by designing the next big engineering marvel. Just so happens they are geographically spread. They like to live in peaceful remote places. Just one scenario, as is the traditional ten people in a city office sharing info.

How the hell will the cloud work when the usual even business class broadband in this country is so crap. Yes you can buy reliability nowadays, but we need more bandwidth and speed. Try cloud Sharepoint over an ADSL connection whilst looking at your cloud Exchange mailbox and surfing the web. Oh dear….why is this so slow. The data center may have loads of bandwidth to t’internet but that matters not once it’s out there and needs downloading.

And before anyone suggests that the client should just go and get a T1 or leased line or whatever bandwidth rich connection…well I don’t know of many clients who would swallow that cost just to move to the cloud!

MLSS, I passed!

A big thanks go out to Lesley March the (used to work at Microsoft but now works with them) licensing trainer and James Henderson, the Scottish Partner Manager.

Lesley was about the best at explaining Microsoft -isms I have ever encountered, from either the training or marketing perspective! Also, doing the 7 courses in one day is quite hard work for us partners and for Lesley! The MLSS is normally done over 2 days at least I think. Time to think about those 23 Software Assurance benefits

Thanks to James for organising the event and for showing willing by taking the course himself. He admitted later that he didn’t know quite as much as he could when it comes to the SMB side of licensing and the issues us SBSC partners face daily regarding licensing our clients software.

Saw James the next night at the Edinburgh SBS Users Group meeting which was the most lively I have ever seen it. James gave a run down of the changes at Microsoft Scotland (and UK) when they move the Edinburgh office to Waverly Gate (Google-Waverly Gate Microsoft, for details in the press). This new headquarters will include a technology center and new Partner suite. These will be Partner driven and can only make Microsoft Scotland a more responsive and less ‘provincial’ outpost